The Persian Empire

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  The Romans, who never lost an opportunity to intervene in the internal affairs of the Parthian Empire and undermine its political stability, sent an Arsacid pretender, Meherdates, to northern Mesopotamia in 49 CE. After spending some time at the court of the king of Edessa, the Parthian rebel marched to Adiabene and stayed with Izates, who had “embraced the alliance with Meherdates, though secretly and in better faith he inclined to Gotarzes,” the reigning Arsacid king (Tacitus: 221). As Meherdates and his army approached the Parthian line of defense, both Izates of Adiabene and the ruler of Edessa deserted with their troops. Emboldened by Meherdates’s diminished and weakened force, Gotarzes attacked. Meherdates was captured and delivered in chains to Gotarzes, who cut off his ears, thus disfiguring him and thereby debarring him from seizing the Arsacid throne (Tacitus: 222).

  Impressed by Izates’s success and good fortune, the king’s brother Monobazus, as well as other members of Adiabene’s royal family, decided to abandon their religion and embrace Judaism. The popularity of Judaism among the members of the ruling family angered and alienated a group of Adiabene’s grandees who opposed the abandonment of traditional religious beliefs, customs, and traditions. In a plot to overthrow Izates, they approached an Arab chieftain, Abia, and implored him to invade Adiabene and remove their king. When Abia attacked Adiabene, however, Izates defeated his army. Recognizing the need to involve a more powerful ruler in their scheme, the plotters now approached the Arsacid monarch Vologeses I (Valakhsh I) (r. 51–76/80 CE) and beseeched him to remove their king and replace Izates with a member of the Arsacid dynasty. When Vologeses attacked Adiabene, Izates, who was painfully aware of the superiority of Parthian forces, resorted to prayer, pleading with God to rescue him from defeat and humiliation. God answered his prayers: before he could attack Izates, Vologeses was forced to withdraw his army and return east to quell the invasion of the Parthian territory by Saka tribes.

  Izates died in 60 CE. The death of the queen mother, Helena, followed shortly thereafter. The new king of Adiabene, Monobazus, the older brother of Izates and a convert to Judaism as well, sent the bodies of his mother and brother to Jerusalem for burial. In 61 CE, shortly after Monobazus had ascended the throne, the ruler of Armenia, Tigranes, attacked Adiabene. The kingdom of Adiabene survived this invasion with assistance and support from the Parthian state. Monobazus and his family continued to fight against Roman forces, which invaded Mesopotamia.

  In 114, the Roman emperor Trajan invaded Armenia and Mesopotamia. During the first stage of his campaign, the Roman forces marched from Armenia to northern Mesopotamia, invading and capturing Nisibis (modern-day Nusaybin in southeastern Turkey). The following year Trajan split his forces, with one army moving south along the banks of the Euphrates River and the second, under the personal command of Trajan, crossing the Tigris River and marching against the Arsacid capital, Ctesiphon, near modern-day Baghdad. The Roman force targeting the Parthian capital defeated the ruler of Adiabene, Mebarsapes, and annexed his province, which was renamed Assyria. The Parthians adopted a scorched-earth policy, destroying sources of food and water. Trajan, however, continued with his march and eventually seized Ctesiphon in 116. The Parthians responded to the Roman invasion by attacking and raiding Assyria, inflicting heavy casualties on Roman forces. The Parthian campaign in Adiabene forced Trajan to return to northern Mesopotamia. The Romans managed to push the Parthian forces out of Adiabene temporarily, but they failed to capture the well-defended city of Hatra. When the Roman emperor finally returned home, he left a king, Parthamaspates, who was assigned the task of ruling Mesopotamia and Adiabene as a loyal client of Rome. This arrangement, however, proved to be short-lived. Parthamaspates was defeated by the Parthian king Osroes, but the Parthians failed to recover Adiabene. The Roman emperor Hadrian, who succeeded Trajan in 117 CE, withdrew his forces from the territories they had occupied during Trajan’s invasion, although Adiabene remained under Roman control. Throughout the campaigns of Trajan in the east, the Jewish population of Mesopotamia allied itself with the Parthians of Iran, who had historically displayed a high level of tolerance for religious diversity, allowing Jews and other religious communities to practice their religions in freedom. Many Jews paid a heavy price for their alliance with the Parthians, with some of their leaders slaughtered by the Romans. But Judaism was not the only religion spreading and finding new converts in Adiabene. Christianity was also making inroads in Adiabene, converting many Jews to the teachings of Christ. During the reign of the Arsacid monarch Vologeses V, who ruled from 191/192 to 207/208 CE, the Parthians took advantage of the internal conflict between contenders to the Roman throne to attack northern Mesopotamia. Adiabene was captured by Vologeses, who killed its pro-Roman ruler, Narseh. When Septimius Severus emerged as the new Roman emperor, he organized a campaign against the Parthians in 196. Though initially successful, Severus was forced to return west to quell a rebellion in Gaul. Once again, the Parthians used this opportunity to regain most of the territories they had lost in Mesopotamia.

  The Roman campaigns in Mesopotamia continued until the fall of the Arsacid dynasty in 224 CE. During the reign of Caracalla (r. 211–217 CE), the Romans once again invaded Mesopotamia, but they failed to defeat the last Arsacid monarch, Artabanus IV (r. 213–224 CE). By the end of Arsacid rule, Adiabene had emerged as a major center of Christianity. Indeed, it was the scholars of Edessa and Adiabene who translated the Old and New Testaments into Syriac. When Ardashir, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty, revolted against the Arsacid monarch Artabanus IV, the ruler of Adiabene joined him. In 224 CE, Ardashir defeated and killed Artabanus on the battlefield. The death of Artabanus IV signaled the end of the Arsacid dynasty and the emergence of the Persian Sasanian state, which would rule from 224 to 651 CE. Ardashir I quickly imposed his authority on the provinces of the Parthian Empire. Those local kings and governors who submitted voluntarily to his rule were allowed to retain their power, and those who refused were removed and replaced by a Sasanian prince, often one of the sons of the Sasanian king. In 235 CE, Ardashir attacked and conquered Mosul, in present-day Iraq, and Carrhae, in present-day southeastern Turkey on the border with northern Syria. He could not, however, capture Adiabene. Ardashir also failed to take the important city of Hatra in northern Mesopotamia, which played a vital role in linking the economies of the ancient Near East to Rome. During the reign of Ardashir’s son and successor Shapur I, who ruled from 239/240/241/242 to 270/272 CE, the Sasanians continued to fight the Romans over control of Armenia and Mesopotamia. Shapur I celebrated his victories over the Roman armies and listed the provinces of his vast empire in an inscription at Naqsh-e Rostam near the present-day city of Shiraz in the province of Fars in southern Iran. Adiabene was mentioned in this inscription as one of the provinces of the Sasanian Empire.

  In the fourth century CE, as Christianity emerged as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the number of Christians increased significantly in Adiabene. The establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire by Emperor Theodosius in 380 left an adverse impact on the relationship between the Christians of Adiabene and the Sasanian state. The Sasanians suspected the Christians of Mesopotamia of being potential allies of their greatest enemy, the Romans. In the seventh century, Arbela emerged as the metropolitan see of Nestorian Christianity (Sellwood: Adiabene). By then the Sasanians no longer regarded these Christians as potential traitors, and the relationship between the two sides had improved markedly. After the collapse of the Sasanian Empire in 651 and the conquest of present-day northern Iraq by Muslim Arabs, Adiabene began a new chapter in its long and rich history under the name of Hadyab (Sellwood: Adiabene).

  See also: K&Q, Arsacid/Parthian: Artabanus II; Vologeses I; K&Q, Sasanian: Ardashir I; Shapur I; Peoples: Arsacids; Sasanian Empire

  Further Reading

  Colledge, Malcolm A. R. The Parthians. New York and Washington, DC: Praeger, 1967.

  Debevoise, Neilson C. A Political History of Parthia. Chicago: Universi
ty of Chicago Press, 1938.

  Josephus. The Complete Works. Translated by William Whiston. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998.

  Kent, Roland G. Old Persian. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1950.

  Neusner, J. A History of the Jews in Babylonia. 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1965–1970.

  Pliny. Natural History. Translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942.

  Sellwood, D. “Adiabene.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/adiabene.

  Tacitus. The Annals of Imperial Rome. Translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2007.

  Alborz

  The Alborz (Persian: Reshteh Kuha-ye Alborz) is a mountain range in northern Iran. The 560-mile (901-kilometer) mountain range separates the northern provinces of Iran, namely Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan lying on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea from the rest of the country. The highest point in the Alborz is the majestic Mount Damavand, at 18,406 feet (5,610 meters). A silent volcano situated 44 miles (66 kilometers) northeast of Tehran, Damavand is also the highest peak in the Middle East. Damavand plays a prominent role in Iranian mythology and ancient Iran’s legendary history.

  The Alborz consists of two distinct climatic zones. The northern region, which has an average annual rainfall of 39.4 inches in the lowlands, is covered with dense vegetation and lush forests, while the southern zone is dry and has an average annual rainfall of 11 to 20 inches, although in some areas it has juniper forests. Numerous rivers originate from the Alborz. Those in the northern zone empty into the Caspian, and those on the southern zone provide water for drinking and irrigation for the communities lying on the southern slopes of the range, including the city of Tehran, capital of Iran. The major dams built on several of these rivers, including the Karaj Dam, the Sefid Rud Dam, and the Jajerud Dam, also generate hydroelectric energy for Iran’s capital city and other urban and rural communities. The Caspian forests of northern Iran were known for centuries for their Hyrcanian or Caspian tigers, the last of which were hunted into extinction in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Other magnificent wild cats, such as leopards, however, continue to roam the lush forests of northern Iran. Additionally, the Alborz is home to bears, red deer, ibex, mountain sheep, and a variety of majestic birds, such as eagles and pheasants.

  The Alborz mountain range of northern Iran separates the Caspian provinces of the country from the central Iranian uplands to the south. (Aref Friis/Dreamstime.com)

  The Alborz played an important role in the mythology of ancient Iran. In the Avesta, the Zoroastrian holy book, Haraiti Barez (Alborz) is identified as the first mountain “that rose up out of the earth,” a mountain that “stretches all along the shores of the land washed by waters (the Caspian Sea) towards the east” (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Yasht, 19.1). Alborz appears as a sacred mountain, which possesses holy powers: the sun and the moon as well as the stars revolve around the Alborz. Mithra, the deity of covenants and oaths and later the sun god of ancient Iran, resides on the highest point of the Alborz, where it can watch the entire world (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Yasht, 10.13). Alborz is also the site for several momentous events in the legendary history of ancient Iran. There was evidently a tendency from ancient times to attach legends to the great mountain, which in one Pahlavi text is said to rise up from Airyanem Vaejah, or Eranvej, the mythical homeland of the Iranian people.

  In the Shahnameh [Book of Kings] of Ferdowsi, the life of the great legendary king Fereydun (Thraetaona of the Avesta) is closely tied to the Alborz Mountains. Fereydun’s father, Abtin (Aptin), is murdered by the tyrant Zahhak. Fereydun’s mother, Faranak, who is trying to save her son from the fate visited upon his father, carries her infant son to a distant pastureland, where she begs a rancher to allow her son to receive nourishment by drinking the milk of a beautiful cow named Barmaye. Shocked and saddened by the state of Faranak and her son, the rancher offers refuge to Fereydun. When the boy reaches the age of three, the evil king Zahhak and his henchmen discover Faranak’s hideout and attack, but before their arrival Faranak, accompanied by Fereydun, escapes to find refuge for her son in the Alborz Mountains, which is identified by the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi as a mountain range rising in India. Zahhak, who is haunted by fear of being dethroned and imprisoned, continues to search for Faranak and her child. Enraged by his failure to capture them, the cruel Zahhak exacts his revenge by killing the kind and beautiful cow Barmaye.

  Fereydun lives in the Alborz Mountains until he is 16 years old, when he comes down from his hideout to visit his mother. The reunion between the mother and son allows Fereydun to ask his mother about his father and the reasons he must live in hiding. In response, Faranak reveals the tragic story of the family. After hearing about the cruel fate of his father, Fereydun vows to exact revenge and punish the brutal Zahhak for his heinous crimes. Soon Fereydun emerges as the leader of a popular uprising led by the blacksmith Kaveh. Kaveh revolts against the tyrant Zahhak after the king’s henchmen detain his sons. The demonic monarch murders young men so he can feed their brains to the two serpents that have grown on his shoulders. His persistent demand to sacrifice innocent human beings to feed his hungry serpents outrages his subjects, who nonetheless out of fear of retribution do not protest his monstrous acts. Kaveh, however, refuses to allow his sons to be sacrificed silently and submissively. The blacksmith walks into the palace of the cannibalistic tyrant to protest. After listening to Kaveh’s pleas, Zahhak orders the blacksmith’s sons to be released but demands that in return for this display of royal mercy and compassion Kaveh sign a proclamation that declares the king to be a just and upright ruler. This demand enrages Kaveh, who tears up the document and storms out of the palace. As he leaves the palace, Kaveh places his blacksmith’s leather apron on a long pole to use it as the flag and standard of his rebellion. Crowds gather around Kaveh, and his protest quickly turns into a mass uprising. The rebellious blacksmith and his supporters march to the Alborz Mountains seeking Fereydun, a descendant of the great kings Tahmures and Jamshid, who is hailed as the legitimate king. Having left his hiding place, Fereydun raises an army and marches against Zahhak, defeating the tyrant. Zahhak is then dragged in chains to a cave in Mount Damavand, the highest peak in the Alborz mountain range.

  Another Iranian legend centered on the Alborz Mountains is the story of Zal (pronounced as Zāl). Zal or Dastan is the son of Sam (pronounced as Sām) and the grandson of Nariman, both legendary heroes in Iranian mythology. Because Dastan is born with snowy white hair he is called Zal, which is the word for “albino” in Persian. His father, Sam, who blames the evil spirit, or Ahriman, for the curious and unusual appearance of his son, curses his fate and decides to abandon the infant Zal at the foot of the Alborz Mountains, which is once again identified by the epic poet Ferdowsi as a range in India. The child cries out in his loneliness and desperation until he is observed by the magical, wise, and powerful bird Simorgh, who has a nest in the Alborz. Simorgh carries the infant to her nest and raises him as her own son. The young boy grows up to become a strong and handsome man. Meanwhile, the aging and ailing Sam begins to regret his decision to abandon Zal and embarks on a journey to recover him. In his search for his lost son, Sam travels to the Alborz Mountains. After pleading with god to return his son safely to him, Sam finally discovers Zal. At first the young man refuses to abandon his adopted mother, Simorgh, and return to his father, but after the bird promises him a brilliant and dazzling future and hands him samples of her feathers, Zal descends from the Alborz and joins his father. Simorgh assures Zal that in times of need, despair, and peril he should throw one of the feathers, which contains god’s glory, into a fire, and the bird would appear at once to guide and assist him. These individual feathers from Simorgh would play an important role in the life of Zal and his family, particularly in the heroic feats of his son, Rostam.

  Another momentous event in the legendary history of Iran that takes place at the Alborz Mountains is
the heroic sacrifice of the archer Arash, one of the legendary heroes of ancient Iran. An early mention of Arash appears in the Zoroastrian scripture the Avesta, which describes him as the archer Erekhsha, or he of the swiftest arrow among the Aryans (The Zend-Avesta, Part II: Yasht, 8.6, 37). In Pahlavi, Erekhsha appears as “Arish Shivātir” or “Arish of the swift arrow,” the best and most accomplished archer in the Iranian army during the reign of the legendary Pishdadian dynasty. When Manuchehr (Minōchihr), the king of Iran, decides to make peace with his greatest enemy, Afrasiyab, the king of Turan, it is stipulated that the best of Iran’s archers should discharge an arrow towards the east, and wherever the arrow falls shall designate the boundary between Iran and Turan. Arash volunteers to climb the mountain and discharge his arrow toward the east. The arrow of the great archer travels from dawn until noon and falls on the banks of the Oxus River, or Amu Darya. The Middle Persian text Mah-e Farvardin Ruz-e Khordad [The Month of Farvardin the Day of Khordad] states that on the sixth day of Farvardin, the first month of the Iranian calendar, King Manuchehr, together with Arash of the swift arrow, reclaimed the Iranian lands from Afrasiyab the Turanian who had invaded Iran (Kia: 8). The story of Arash the archer is repeated in the Shahnameh [Book of Kings] composed by the Persian poet Ferdowsi. According to Ferdowsi, Manuchehr, the king of Iran, is engaged in a fierce battle against the armies of Iran’s sworn enemies, the Turanians, in the region of Tabarestan, which corresponds with the present-day northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, located on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and the northern slopes of the Alborz mountain range. The Turanians, led by their king Afrasiyab, have surrounded the Iranian army. At this point, both sides agree to end the war and conclude a peace treaty. According to the peace agreement, the boundary between Iran and Turan will be established by an archer who will shoot his arrow in an easterly direction from the top of a mountain. Wherever the arrow lands will be recognized as the boundary between the two kingdoms. Thus, the brilliant archer Arash is ordered by the Iranian king to discharge his arrow as far east as he can. As the sun rises on the horizon, Arash climbs Mount Damavand and, upon reaching its highest point, discharges his arrow, which travels long and far before it lands at the end of the day on the banks of the Oxus River. As he had predicted before climbing the mountain, Arash dies upon releasing his arrow. There are several versions of the legend of Arash, many claiming different locations for the mountain from which the arrow is discharged and for the place where it lands. Most sources agree that the arrow is discharged from somewhere in the Alborz mountain range, and despite their differences on where the arrow lands, these sources mostly concur that it is somewhere in northern Afghanistan or Central Asia, the most popular site being a walnut tree on the banks of the Oxus River, the present-day border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with Afghanistan.